Made in the same decade and with similar materials, these two sheets show completely different
approaches to abstraction. Both artists explored the expressive quality of gesture in these works,
but the contrast in their vocabulary of forms is striking.
Bourgeois used hundreds of small brushstrokes to create a dense, all-over composition suggestive
of an agitated, turbulent landscape.
Newman used two long vertical forms he called "zips" to create a sense of classical
balance in his composition. His two zips play off of each other, the one defining positive
space with black ink, the other negative space left by the white of the paper.
Louise Bourgeois (American,
born in France, 1911)
Untitled, about 1950
Brush and black ink and gray
wash, with white paint and
traces of black chalk(?) and
blue crayon, 22 x 28 inches
(^)
Barnett Newman
(American, 1905-1970)
Untitled, 1959
Brush and black ink, 21
1/16 x 24 1/16 inches